I think this is also where responsibility comes in. In the sense that if you can differentiate between a mood and an episode, you'll know better what you need to hold yourself accountable for (which doesn't mean undo guilt or self-loathing either, hopefully this can be avoided).

But if I go and yell at someone at work or home -and I'm not in some sort of persistent episode- then I'm responsible for going and yelling at someone. I think sometimes there's a fear of having/taking that responsibility that leads -in some cases- to attributing too much behavior and too many moods to BP. I think if we were easier on ourselves and kinder to ourselves, we wouldn't feel the need to do that so much.

Sometimes we just have a bad day, lose our temper, whatever it may be. And that's ok. Sometimes an apology might be in order, but other than that, we deserve support and kindness as human beings even if it's 'just' a really bad day. But I think identifying what's going on is important, both for our health and our relationships.

I'm referring to anger/irritability here, but this could apply to nearly any mood. i.e. If one day you feel really down and feel the need to stay in bed all day, that deserves just as much support and kindness as if it were a persistent episode.

Kindness to oneself is important in all cases, but I think differentiating between moods and episodes can help so much, including in decisions to change or take more meds -I'm not sure you want to throw lots of meds at a bad mood/day (or a great mood/day, for that matter). And then we can also describe what's going on better to our pdocs and work better with them. At least this has been my experience. Hope this makes sense...